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Sting on Amazon Booksellers Aims To Weed Out Counterfeit Textbooks, But Small Sellers Getting Hurt (cnbc.com)
Amazon upended the book industry more than two decades ago by bringing sales onto the web. Now, during the heart of the holiday shopping season, the company is wreaking havoc on used booksellers who have come to rely on Amazon for customers. From a report: In the past two weeks, Amazon has suspended at least 20 used book merchants for allegedly selling one or more counterfeit textbooks. They all received the same generic email from Amazon informing them that their account had been "temporarily deactivated" and reminding them that "the sale of counterfeit products on Amazon is strictly prohibited."
[...] The crackdown on textbook sellers stands out at a time when Amazon is dramatically stepping up its broader anti-counterfeiting efforts, suspending third-party sellers across all its popular categories. Unlike most suspensions, which tend to occur after complaints from consumers or from brand owners who are monitoring the site for counterfeits, these booksellers got caught up in what appears to be a coordinated sting operation.
[...] The crackdown on textbook sellers stands out at a time when Amazon is dramatically stepping up its broader anti-counterfeiting efforts, suspending third-party sellers across all its popular categories. Unlike most suspensions, which tend to occur after complaints from consumers or from brand owners who are monitoring the site for counterfeits, these booksellers got caught up in what appears to be a coordinated sting operation.
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When selecting an 'olive branch' for liberals, make sure it's narrower than your thumb.
What are the big US brands doing to the free internet?
Selling a used book is now counterfeiting.
Buying parts to repair a computer is now counterfeiting.
No talking about the news.
No reviews about movies scripts and the ability of an actor.
No funny political memes.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
That's sage advice, because they're no doubt going to shove it right up your lying faggot traitor's asshole with extreme prejudice, you spineless bitches have no chance of stopping it now.
Something bad was bound to happen to the folks who came up with the $300 textbook cabal.
Text books can cost $100+
This isn't really on Amazon. They are covering their own ass with this.
Its the text book publishers that are causing this. Why would I pay $100 for a book I need and required to have when I can get it for $50. Counterfeit or not.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
Blue. Red.
Both the same pieces of shit.
Honestly should ban Dem and Rup from voting for a few years at least.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
If you read through the article, one of the books was a used donated book ten years old.
How can anyone say if a ten year old book is counterfeit? That alone seems pretty suspicious.
It sure does end up looking like Amazon is simply shutting down people selling any used textbooks...
If I were an Amazon seller no way would I ship anything to the address and person mentioned in the article, though probably they will just switch to a new name and fake address...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That predates Amazon by around 15-20 years or so. Ironically, I used to counterfeit textbooks myself on the campus copy machine. Never had a problem, never tried to sell the copies. YMMV.
Because Cengage has bribed your professor to require you to use their online homework system. That way, you're forced to give them $100 even though you get no value out of it.
Remember, every cable bill, every movie, every iTunes purchase, you're subsidizing the destruction of the public domain.
If you enjoy being lied to about US journalists being murdered, by all means, stick with Drumpf. But you're increasingly on your own as he heads off to prison, FYI.
Just to be clear, these are probably low cost copies of books printed in other countries where the copyright laws or marketed costs of these books are 1/10 to 1/20 of the price in the USA. And therefore not supposed to be imported into the USA. Or outright copies of USA textbooks, repackaged into paperback and sold by someone who doesn't have the license to do so.
"Counterfeit" makes it sound like they have 3rd rate imitation equations or incorrect facts in them, written by some kids in a sweatshop in Bangladesh.
It's hard to keep a monopoly on knowledge.
No worries I'm still selling legitimate copies of "Not Without My Anus: The Creimer Story" on Amazon for only $5.
What we need to do is outright abolish the copyright monopoly industrial complex. Unfortunately government supported theft and violence (ie copyright industry + government) via redistribution of wealth schemes like this (ie copyright relies on the former) is what politicians depend on to get elected. We have little hope at reforming the world, but I hope to make a difference in NH. The only state where there are other like-minded soles moving for that purpose and which has a solid set of surrounding conditions that make it apt for an eventual takeover by those of us who are not republican nor democrat and actually want freedom above all else. If there is no violence or theft there is no crime and the crime itself is the law against for which is enacted for which no theft or violence.
that's not even what this issue is about. it's about real textbooks printed for overseas by the same publishers who print the overpriced USA ones, because the schools support their cabal.
I say we make a law requiring textbooks to be sold domestically at the lowest price the overseas people can get them. what we have now is price gouging
This isn't really on Amazon. They are covering their own ass with this.
I'm not so sure. Seems like the publishers could, if they chose, run the same game themselves and complain to amazon about sellers they felt were violating copyright.
But if you read the article, at least one book was a one year old physics textbook. What college is going to be using that anymore? Sure doesn't seem like that book purchase was requested by a publisher, it was Amazon taking the mission of finding counterfeit textbooks to an extreme (and I seriously doubt they could really tell if a ten year old textbook was a counterfeit).
If I were the booksellers I'd be looking at a class action lawsuit for lost revenue from the lot of them that we're banned for simply selling used textbooks.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
:)
actually, the claimed "counterfeit" in this issue is just real textbook by same publisher, printed for non-domestic market, because the publishers can use the "required for college" in the USA to screw over the domestic buyer by inflating price 4 times or more.
easy fix for this, require the publisher to have the same price for U.S. citizen as lowest overseas market price. Time to cap this cartel in the knees
"I say we make a law requiring textbooks to be sold domestically at the lowest price the overseas people can get them. " - Ok, but you can't be a Republican if you support that. It's incompatible with the bullshit.
The textbook market is POLLUTED with dozens of Indochimps selling knock-off fake textbooks printed on newsprint with smudgy ink, and paper bindings, not cloth.
Anyone who has been in the market for a used textbook invariably comes across these bottom feeders. When a legit used Springer textbook is selling for $80, you will find in the search results dozens of Indochimps selling fake versions offered as "new" for $20.
If the vendor has an Indian sounding name or ships from India, buyer beware.
Because somebody will smash-yo-face if you try scamming a fake book to save yo MaryJane money! Authors author ... publishers publish ... ignorant squats like you pay! Got that ? Clear enough parasite ??
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES NAZI INCEL FAGGOT KEN DOLL FOR YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Just to be clear, these are probably low cost copies of books printed in other countries where the copyright laws or marketed costs of these books are 1/10 to 1/20 of the price in the USA.
So?
Or outright copies of USA textbooks, repackaged into paperback and sold by someone who doesn't have the license to do so.
Fuck'em! When I took a business class, I had to buy the current edition of a text book for $175.00. Is anyone going to tell me that I need a current edition for the latest information - in business. And even in other subjects, a textbook takes about 10 years to publish: it's already out of date for STEM classes. Even THEN, classical Physics? Do we really NEED the most current $200 edition for Newtonian mechanics?
Seriously?
Why can't the fuckers use Dover fucking classics for $13.99? Professors are in on it.
Fuck'em. I worked ALL Summer when I was in college just to buy ONE semesters worth of textbooks and that was buying mostly USED!
Fuck'em!!
"Time to cap this cartel in the knees" = WHO ARE YOU and what have you done with loyal GOP toadie Iggymanz?! I like this version of you but still wtf, did you have a brain tumor removed or something? Wow!
Text books can cost $100+
Often much more. This is why in the classes I teach, I specifically choose books published under licenses like the Creative Commons. And if those aren't available for what I need, I'll "recommend" old versions of text books as a resource (e.g. "if you need more practice exercises, see ch 5 of ___, which you can get at the library or for about $10 used). Nobody needs to buy a brand new $200 "Intro to Statistics for Business" book, especially since they'll probably never look at it again. I also tend to draw from published papers and even well-written blogs.
I can create and assign my own problems and exam questions, so there's no need for rip-offs like Cengage.
It's a little more work on my part, but much more satisfying and a lot better value for my students.
How can you hope to convince anyone you're employed if you spend all day every day blathering online one inane bullshit trope after another, all day every day incessantly back for the last 3 dozen at least?
Taking a fake-battical?
Some of my best professors did this as well. The ones who required a textbook, especially an expensive one was USUALLY a red flag they weren't very good. The CS department was the best, followed by some english teachers, with the business, math, and chem departments being the worst.
Let's show our patriotism by running the streets red, white, and blue with the blood and milk that has made America sour again! :)
Because review copies also say 'not for resale' on them. Whether that holds up in court I'd love to know, especially in the used book market. And the torn off book cover issue is another one. Many books, especially softcovers have the covers fall off within ten years, especially if they are well read. Are those books now 'counterfeit' even though they were a legitimate purchase and the cover fell off as a result of intentionally defective manufacturing, rather than actually being a 'certified destroyed' official copy of the book?
There is a lot of scrutiny that needs to be shined on first tier/party publishers.
Totally agree. A good example is "Operating Systems Design and Implementation" by Andrew Tannenbaum. It's still (right this very fucking minute) $180 new on Amazon. I used that book in college for my Operating Systems 200 class. I'd lost my copy. So, I got on Ebay and ordered one for $8. However, when it came, it was brand new and said "Asian Edition" but was 100% English and other than that label on the cover ... identical.
All it takes is one student who knows how to use a copying machine!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
You don't read the bible do you? Onan's sin was spilling his seed on the ground instead of impregnating his brother's wife like any good brother would have done for his sterile bro!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
departments. I used to be a prof at a large university. One of the reasons I left academics was that I got tired of fighting the battle about textbooks in courses that I was required to teach (faculty divvied up the 100/200 courses, everyone had to do some).
I started out as a starry-eyed young prof trying to help my students by putting alternate sources of inexpensive textbooks on syllabi. We're talking textbooks at $2 vs. $120 on the used market. Saving students a lot of dough. But that go no-noed.
So I pulled it off the syllabus and started just making verbal announcements. That also got no-noed.
So I started just requiring an office hours visit first week of semester and telling students in office hours. That also got no-noed.
So I stopped requiring the textbook and sent them to the library for optional textbook reading. That also got no-noed.
I had serious ethical qualms about forcing students—about half of whom really oughtn't find a way to "afford" it—to spend $hundreds on things that were $nearly free and being forbidden from making it $totally free by just sending them to the library.
Everyone must buy the book, I was told. There's departmental and institutional revenue at stake, I was told. Nevermind that first-year college students from underprivileged backgrounds whose entire extended families were pulling together to help them through were dropping $1k a semester on $50-75 worth of books from used booksellers.
It's just one factor in the decisions that led me out of academics, but it's a very concrete one. It felt like a slimy industry after a while, more about conning money out of people (students, taxpayers, donors and endowers) than caring about the topics at hand.
But yeah, don't blame the profs.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
You bought one? In most tech classes I took, if it comes in PDF and is more than six months old, we share :)
I do remember being handed a USB drive with that book on it about five years ago for my OS class.
The AG was fired? That was in the 1970s.
Jefferson Davis Slink Simpson Burton Cabot Auburn Rules Bitch Sessions IV resigned of his own accord to move to Russia for the weather. And fine dining. And NASCAR racing.
Yeah. He's thinking of "Sin of Sodom".
Just passing a law making it Legal to import copyrighted or patented stuf from outside America would suffice. Selling new DVD's in China for $5 when the same sells for $30 here is barely above theft.
I'm a nerd, so I've collected all editions of Tanenbaum. I don't run Minix regularly, but I have it and run it sometimes.
The original Minix booted off floppy diskettes and would run on an IBM PC-XT, by the way.
My side hustle is selling dildoes on amazon. I have them manufactured in China (with my private label) and send them to amazon's warehouse (fulfilled by amazon). For the holiday season, I had a big shipment of red/white striped dildoes that look like candy canes. Perfect for stocking stuffers (and then stuff your ass, lol), hanging on christmas trees, decorating your office, etc. Then amazon told me they were counterfeit and seized all of them. I spent a LOT of money having them custom made, getting the veins and bell end just right, testing, etc and Amazon won't give me any explanation whatsoever.
If the overseas version was legally sold then the publisher can't ban the import of it. Copyright != Importright.
Well, actually copyright does include control over importation. Itâ(TM)s a part of the distribution right at 17 USC 106(3), 602.
BUT, the distribution right is subject to (among other things) the âoefirst saleâ exception at 17 USC 109. The leading case on this is Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 568 U.S. 519 (2013), in which the Supreme Court held that lawfully made copies can be imported by anyone.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
...are supposed to put an end to this kind of deal between academic publishers, booksellers, and educational institutions that fleece students for $10's billions (that's not a typo) every year. In several studies, OER textbooks were shown to be of equal or higher quality than their commercial counterparts and institutions are already implementing "OER first" policies. Also, OER textbooks increase academic outcomes because more students have the books before or at the start of their courses and don't miss out on anything from the start.
Amazon is not cracking down on the weed in your textbooks.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give them such market dominance after all?
Amazon has been been under fire for making it too easy for vendors to use the platform to sell cheap knockoffs of popular brands. So now Amazon is the bad guy for trying to prevent this from happening?
They're secondhand and the publishers can't ban secondhand so they accuse the resellers of selling counterfeits and amazon have to do something about it.
I once bought a "used good condition" RPG book which had gone out of print.
It was bound, the same was as the original, but was an obvious photocopy, but on the same quality paper as the original.
The quality was better then anything I could have made from a photocopier, and the binding job was excellent.
In the end, it was excellent value.
You Americans are such blithering idiots. "used booksellers" - is that booksellers that are used? Cretins.
Same is the thing that I've read so far somewhere else. But I was looking deep into the profession of Bookselling on Amazon . And here your post stuck my mind.